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Yearly Archives: 2013
Shotgun News 9/16: Warframe, PlanetSide 2, Silent Hunter Online, and Much More!
Warframe Launched Update 10
Even though it is still in Open Beta, Warframe has launched the 10th and one of the biggest updates yet. Shadows of the Dead brings new environments, weapons, game modes and much more. Including the introduction of The Conclaves which allows duels with anyone. There are even a few new things for the clan dojo.
Planetside 2 Begins World Domination Series
A call to arms has been released as the World Domination Series Pre Season begins today! Every week will bring a new objective for players to complete, every week there will be an empire winner and after 5 weeks there will be only one winner of the pre-season. Scores are handed out for holding territory and capturing it from the enemy. And best of all a leaderboard is available.
Silent Hunter Online Dives into Open Beta
The newest browser based free to play MMO has launched into open beta. Silent Hunter Online is a WWII submarine simulation from Ubisoft and Blue Byte. It has immersive weather, and an all new level of realism. And registration for it all is going on now.
Nexon to Aquire Thingsoft
Thingsoft, the developer who brought us the FIFA Online franchise is being bought by Nexon. The acquisition will be handled through Neople which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Nexon. Prior to this Thingsoft was purchased by Neowiz in 2006 after FIFA Online launched. Thingsoft’s next project, a sandbox MMORPG titled Project NT is scheduled to launch next year.
Guardians of Middle-Earth PC Edition Review
By Mohammad Abubakr (Abubakr)
The journalists on the OnRPG/MMOHuts team are given the freedom to choose their projects. This means that most of the time I tend to give out positive reviews due to only selecting to write about those games that appeal to myself. I would rather not force myself to sit down and play something I do not see myself enjoying at least a little bit. When I saw Guardians of Middle-Earth in the list of upcoming games, being a fan of Lord of the Rings, I knew I had to give this game a try.
Guardians of Middle-earth is an Action RTS/MOBA type game developed by Zombie Studios and published by Warner Bros. featuring heroes from J.R.R Tolkien’s famous books The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings Trilogy. It is not a free to play game and can be purchased on Steam for $19.99. Similar to Dota 2 and League of Legends, the objective of the game is for each team of five to fight with the overarching goal being the destruction of all enemy structures. Upon destruction of the enemy’s base, your team will come out as victorious. Games are also running on a timer which upon reaching the limit, the team with the most points wins. Of course destruction of the base can result in an auto win regardless of team points. Normally at this point when I am talking about an Action RTS game, I’d go on about the game being much more complicated than it sounds. However, I cannot say exactly the same about Guardians of Middle-earth.
While there is more to the game than simply marching up the three lane map (there is also an optional one lane map) and mowing down enemy towers and structures, it is simply nowhere near as complex as other games of the genre. We do see complexity differences in all games from the Action RTS/MOBA genre but GoME (Guardians of Middle-earth) takes it to a whole new level by taking out major features that defined the genre. I am not one to hate on change, I love companies trying something new, but taking out such massive features to reduce complexity was really a bad move for GoME.
This decision might have made sense for console versions (which do exist) due to the difficulties that are bound to appear from restrictions on controller buttons, but I am really disappointed in the PC version of this game.
My team is ready to begin battle!
In most, if not all popular, Action RTS/MOBA games, there are certain phases throughout each match. The early minutes of a game are spent more passively than others to allow for heroes on opposing sides to compete in lanes for creep kills in order to receive gold. This phase has been completely eliminated in GoME. To some, this sounds great; no more time is wasted on farming and we can simply begin the game in aggression. One would think anyway. It doesn’t exactly play out this way. Towers are still very powerful early on so you are still forced to play semi-passively unless you want to get killed by enemy towers.
There is very little reason to dance around creeps in order to gain the last hit due to creeps not even rewarding gold on death. You simply kill creeps to push the wave and get closer to enemy structures. This really eliminates one of the main reasons for complexity in Action RTS/MOBA games which is deciding on what items would be best for each unique situation. There is simply no shop in GoME so there is no need to worry about purchasing any items. Simply kill creeps, push waves, level up, and decide on which skills to level up.
Skills are also very simplistic. They do not have any mana costs, allowing for them to be spammed at all times. All you need to worry about are the cool downs which are also very short. Basically, the fights take very little thinking due to there being no mana management and low cool downs. This doesn’t mean that skills are just mindlessly spammed, you are still required to aim skills and use them in the correct order to deal optimal damage but skills have been overly simplified from other games of the genre. The controls are also very clunky, resulting in execution being very difficult.
The pro to these design decisions is that action is always going on. There is no need to wait around for strong skills to get off cool down. You simply begin fighting again within seconds. However, I’d rather have a game be more strategic than just mindless combat at all times.
To be honest, the graphics aren’t too bad.
Let us not completely bash the game as there are some elements which are good additions to the genre. For example, aside from mindlessly pushing all three lanes alongside creep waves and fighting the enemy heroes, there are shrines positioned around the map which can be captured to provide buffs to your entire team. These shrines are captured just like a typical control point seen in first person shooters, you must stay on or close to the area until the capture is complete. The shrine’s can decide the outcomes of fights so it is essential to keep these under control. Notifications indicating takeover attempts result in both sides actively positioning themselves to hold these points.
As a substitute to customizing heroes by purchasing items, towers can be upgraded. While this does give some more incentive to stay in lanes and gain experience to gain levels instead of mindlessly running around getting kills, it is not as complex of a system as the item system seen in other games of the genre.
While you may not gain gold inside of the game, you are rewarded with experience (for player level) and gold that can be used to purchase additional items outside of the match. This was one of the main concepts that was a disappointment when it came to game design for GoME. You are already paying for the game, why should you need to grind gold to purchase more content?
Players can purchase relics, gems, and potions with their gold currency to suit their play style. For those familiar with League of Legends, relics and gems are very similar to the rune system. They can give bonuses such as additional attack damage, armor penetration and so on. This is one area where there is a lot of room for customization, but once again you will need to grind out the gold to purchase these. Potions are simply consumables which grant buffs for a limited time and can also be purchased with gold. Alongside potions, there are also additional usable skills (Commands) similar to Summoner Spells in League of Legends but in GoME four skills are allowed to be equipped at a time, only limited by a global cool down.
The above options may not sound so bad, there are lots of buy-to-play games that require you to purchase additional items for stats. However, the problem is that even heroes need to be purchased and unlocked with in game gold! You are only given access to a limited pool at the beginning and must work to unlock the others. There are currently 36 heroes released and you are given access to less than half of that pool without spending gold.
While some heroes (ahem, Guardians) are available, you are still required to purchase others.
Skins may also be purchased to customize your hero’s appearance but these can only be bought with real cash. They come in bundles and are sold as DLC on the Steam Store. These bundles also provide bonus gold currency allowing for those with big wallets to gain an advantage over those unwilling to spend more on the game.
With all these cons clearly outweighing the pros, the Guardians of Middle-earth community is also dead. I’ve only gotten matched against one other player in each of my 5 vs 5 matches. The match making system simply gives up and places you against bots. As many people know, these kinds of games involving PvP are not very enjoyable when playing against artificial intelligence. My opinion of this game may have been slightly better as I would have definitely enjoyed it more if I had been given the chance to play against other players.
Final Verdict: Poor
In conclusion, Guardians of Middle-earth has been a very disappointing game to play. Seeing characters from some of my favourite books, I was expecting to have a lot of fun razing down buildings with characters such as Gandalf and Thorin but was disappointed with the simplicity of the game. This game is not for those familiar with the Action RTS/MOBA genre as you will instantly miss a lot of the staple features from the genre. For new players to the genre it is a decent game to get used to the camera and controls of Action RTS games but will cause those players to become overwhelmed when jumping into more complex Action RTS games. I do not usually tell gamers to stay away from a game but I am unable to give my recommendation for this game. Save your money and look at other games from this genre such as Dota 2.
Silent Hunter Online English Announcement
Ubisoft brings its signature submarine-based series to the masses with a new F2P browser-based iteration, Silent Hunter Online.
Gamebox
Gamebox
Nether Online SafeZone Objective Demo Part 2
Phosphor Games showcases an extension of their previous video of safezone PvP from the perspective of the other clan in Nether Online.
Early Access: Nether Online
By Darren Henderson (DizzyPW), General Manager
Earlier today I had a chance to duck in at gametrailers’ office a few blocks from our own to meet with Chip Seneni, Director of Nether Online over at indie studio Phosphor Games. I was sure to dedicate the full morning to speaking with him as, unlike countless other titles being pushed in the online space in recent months, Chip has an idea for something that’s truly outside the box. See Phosphor Games saw the success of the DayZ Zombie Shooter and didn’t think “Oh zombies must be big now.” Instead they have long been at work building towards a game focused on the survival elements in a post-apocalyptic urban landscape free of the zombie hoards invading every other shooter on the market.
Nether Online is built around the philosophy that survival takes wits, negotiation skills, stealth, and planning. Creating a decaying world 10 years after a modern event known as The Culling, Phosphor Games has built a perpetual war between the player controlled “Chosen” survivors pitted against their mutated brethren in a desperate struggle to come out on top of the food chain. Even facing off against a single mutant can push you to your limits and greatly hinder your ability to achieve your goals before returning to the safe zone. Draw attention to yourself in the process and you may end up in combat against three monsters that will almost certainly end in your demise. And while the concept is simple enough, when you break down the various components you realize you’re not dealing with your standard indie project.
Noise is Everything
Noise has always played a major part in shooters, but more recently it has begun offering unfair advantages to those gunning with high-end surround sound systems. Know where the bullets are flying? You’ll be first in your team to turn in preparation for the coming assault. Phosphor wants to push this system to the next level by making noise the basis for its creatures’ AI. This means with each step you take, each shot you fire, and each door you open, your paranoia will be growing as you ponder if that squeaky door hinge just gave away your position.
But to even the playing field for those lacking in hardware, icons will appear on your radar as well as other yet to be developed indicators to send word to the players themselves of key noises and the direction they came from. This will play a major factor in the open world PvP element as each noise you make might give out your position to a bandit sniper or band of local thugs waiting to loot your corpse as soon as you slip up. Those survival gamers looking to feel suspense from just running across a street will find heaping helpings of it in Nether.
The Economics of Survival
Now one issue of previous survival titles that Phosphor Games hopes to address is the free-for-all run and gun style of play that overtakes most servers in titles like DayZ. Typically when dealing with stupid slow zombies, players end up turning on each other to find challenge in their world. As already alluded to, the monsters themselves will push players a bit harder to make it unwise to take the fight to them without someone watching your back. Various monster types with class distinct features will keep you challenged with a mixture of teleports, tactics, and skills. Four examples offered during the demo include:
Hunter – Satyr looking demonic creature that utilizes a long blade-like arm to tear at its foes. Teleports rapidly to disorient and dismantle its prey. When hunting in packs, the Hunters can leave a foe wondering just how many total they are actually fighting, resulting in a loss of moral that can tear teamwork down.
Shrieker – A ranged mutant that assaults its prey with acidic spittle. This creature is best assassinated with stealth and high impact weapons as it has a tendency to let out a shrill yell when threatened that attracts nearby mutants.
Meatsack – These slow and mostly harmless creatures demonstrate the resistance of some mutants to fight the dark madness that overtook most of the survivors. When faced with confrontation, they will often cry softly. Players will have to make the decision if it’s worth putting them out of their misery or sneaking past them as their cries can signal more dangerous creatures and untrustworthy humans of your location
SubBoss – This tentatively named monster rules the streets and makes foragers think twice about wandering the streets at night. Its thick skin can absorb large amounts of damage without flinching as it smashes through obstacles in a relentless assault to tear its foes apart one at a time. Approaching one without a unified militia is absolute suicide, and the only successful tactic to defeating one involves assigning one member of your team as bait while the rest of your squad lays into him from hidden positions.
A Day/Night system is in place and the monsters grow in strength as the sun sets. Phosphor is exploring the concept of only allowing certain terribly dangerous monsters to come out at night, while less dangerous creatures like the Meatsack commonly roam during the day.
For players that are confident and coordinated enough to not be held back by the basic necessities of survival, they can set out to hunt down lesser players to acquire their gear, or run dynamic public events or assigned quests at the safe zone. One such event is demoed below in which the safe zone loses its supersonic defense system, allowing the mutants to raid your resting point until the defenses are restored. Another instance may be an NPC in town offering an abnormally high reward for bringing him X of resource Y in a set time period.
All this comes down to pushing a player’s motivation to feel like they have something to accomplish in an otherwise open-ended sandbox world. Phosphor Games fears that the simple gameplay of leaving the save zone, collecting random supplies, and exchanging them for new gear back at the safe zone before you die and drop it all on its own would not be satisfying enough to keep players entertained for an extended period of time. When a helicopter suddenly crashes or an NPC rescue mission is thrown into the mix at random, players will be kept guessing on how events might play out on each expedition outside their safety walls.
Growth and Progression
Another factor that sets Nether apart from its survival-based counterparts is a heavier focus on progressing your character and building a reputation. This is done in-part through a system that doesn’t push perma-death on a player, but still punishes the player with a full weapon and loot drop upon death that will feel like a hard slap on the wrist each time it happens. However your name, looks, appearance customizing clothes, money, and stats will remain intact when you respawn. Weapons, quest objective items, and other perishables that can be sold or exchanged in town will remain at your corpse waiting for the first player to loot them.
Initially Phosphor Games intended to push a stat system that leveled based on what its players used or accomplished during play. After extensive alpha testing though they found their system too susceptible to gamey stat pushes who would just run in place, or jump around the safe zone trying to build up physical prowess. Instead completing tasks or engaging in combat and player kills will now feed into a collective experience pool, allowing players to set stat points towards specific advantages. Although not every stat has an obvious purpose in-game yet, a few concepts they are tossing around include:
Health
Stamina
Hunger
Strength
Melee Power
Speed
Marksmanship
Critical Strike
Reload Speed
Expertise
Survival
First-Aid
Scavenging
As you can imagine these stats offer enough diversity that players can build their own class of “Melee Bruiser” or “Mid-Line Gunner” by allotting points towards set directions like health and melee power or critical strike and reload speed. I’m unsure if there is a cap currently planned on skill progression but this at least gives a slight boon to reward players that have spent countless hours enjoying the game compared to a brand new player. Still Pay-to-Win is something Phosphor Games knows is a nail in the coffin for a title that already has a planned Buy 2 Play business model and, as such, will only sell cosmetic gear in their microtransaction store. Body armor and other stat boosting items are still being considered as a maybe due to Phosphor being unsure about how to go about breaking appearance customization apart from functionality.
How these stats are going to play out when involving the stamina and hunger systems will be interesting. As any good survival genre title, players will have to manage their hunger and thirst to keep their combatant going full steam until they’re safely behind the walls of their base again. And for the times you find yourself stranded in the fringes a bit too long, you’ll soon find your player dealing with a plethora of gameplay impacting effects including depth of vision blurs, removal of sprinting, slowing melee swings, shakiness when aiming, or increased recoil on heavy firearms. All in all they want to punish a player for pushing their limits while still giving them a fighting chance to make it back alive with an epic story to tell.
Finally for players who have no idea what they’re out in the world to do while exploring, they hope to have signifiers of loot to draw players in the right direction. That way if you’re out exploring for rations, you might tend to migrate towards a large supermarket. If you’re looking for weapons, the occasionally downed vehicle (with smoke bellowing into the heavens included for long-distance spotting) or abandoned military Humvee will typically spawn the weapon sets you’re trying to get your hands on. All-in-all this should not only help give that drive of players to push forward, but draw out the recluses from various nearby buildings to fight over a particular resource spawn. But as for the lures out far beyond the safety of the safe zone confines, team play will come into action.
Clan Unification and Extreme Challenges
The best loot to be found in Nether is planned to be given out at the outside fringes of town as well as acquirable in the major public events. These events though will push the twitch skill limits of players seeking to survive them to reap the rewards. As such if your goal is to be the best of the best, you’re going to need to group up with like-minded people to coordinate an assault on the wild and come back in one piece with loot in hand. But the perks of working as a clan are more plentiful than just having a few extra guns at your back.
Clan Housing – Phosphor Games is currently drafting up various concepts to allow a clan to lock down a building or location outside of the safe zone to establish as ground zero for your clan. Here players will be able to acquire clan designated clothing, set respawn points, share inventory with a clan storage bank, pick up extra supplies en route to a loot destination, relax for a bit thanks to being in a heavily defended oasis amidst the chaos of the city, and enjoy the view from your rooftop clubhouse. These clan structures are expected to be instanced out, blocking outsiders from gaining access unless they get a hold of a key card. Though like everything else in the world, I imagine a mutant or two might still find their way in at some point.
Inventory Limitations – The biggest hauls mean nothing if you find yourself alone with no allies to help carry it back. Fill your person with too much junk and your sluggish character will be easy pickings for bandits and mutants alike. As such running with a clan is key as each player can equip and upgrade backpacks to up their carrying capacity and make sure that every dime of your loot pile profits the members of your clan. Not to mention the sheer size of the city is huge, and having a few members tagging along with the purpose of carrying supplies to keep the units’ stamina up and hunger down will be vital.
Public Objectives and Strengths – Many events will be impossible to do alone. Though very much a work in progress, supersonic emitters and other access/power points will require someone to man and defend while allies take advantage of the opening to complete objectives elsewhere. Getting a team with varying strengths together such as a doctor, a bruiser, and sniper, and a runner will greatly raise a clan’s chances of success in these risky missions. After all guns are scarce and losing an entire armory to a failed public event might cost you major street credibility with your rivals.
Community Feedback
I might be biased on this piece but the strongest feature an indie title can offer is its flexibility and dedication to adjusting their title to meet their community’s feedback and expectations. Phosphor Games recognizes this and intend to create a mixture of servers (each able to house up to 64 players) to bring varying rulesets to keep everyone happy.
Based on current feedback they’re considering a server without the mutants present so players can focus on group open world PvP without distraction. Another might have greater realism including healing items specific for given injuries like a stint for a broken leg. Yet another option being considered is one where guns and ammunition is a rare commodity, changing the economics of the server as a result. Although initially voted down by the community, they have considered offering a third person view mode server to see if enough players would prefer the less intense view over a forced first person perspective as will be in the default game. Character progression is planned to be tied to your account so you will have the freedom to jump between these variations finding a community and ruleset that you enjoy without having to start over from scratch each time. It’s unconfirmed but I imagine equipment won’t be transferrable for balance reasons though.
The community also seems to be clamoring for vehicles so they are tested a few options. Everything from fortified transport vehicles to standard cars to even helicopters are currently on the table. Phosphor Games likes the idea of a skybase settled on top of a half decayed building that is only reachable by aircraft.
Crafting is pretty high on the development priority list. Though the obvious will likely make it into the game at launch such as combining a taser with a gun scope and amplifier to create an extended range stun gun, Phosphor is considering pushing the envelope. One thought is farms and other player raised crafting materials and food that can then be transformed via various skill crafts into items of utility. All that’s holding them back is the question of public domain and how much of your personally raised crafting developments you would be able to transfer between servers.
Since Chip seemed so open to suggestion, I threw my two cents in as well and received a nodding approval on both. One was a server with two safezones that would compete directly with the other for resources and perhaps points. ‘Like sports teams complete with clan jerseys’ is how Chip envisioned the concept. The other was a type of GM interaction involving a central government that occasionally would fly into town to deliver a supply drop and share news of progress in the world outside of Chicago. They previously had considered including clues and audio diaries throughout the city that would build on Nether’s lore, but this concept would be ideal for pushing future updates and adding an element of growing intrigue into a living world.
All-in-all, Nether Online is a lofty project for a small indie studio to accomplish. As such they are taking it one step at a time, and plan to focus on the core elements and features of the game before opening up additional development to a player run forum where popular demand of feasible ideas will be implemented first. Thankfully this forum and access to the game itself should arrive as early as fall of this year. So strap on your backpack, grab some silent sneakers, and prepare to test your nerves as the horrific survival story begins soon.
Warframe Update 10.0 Dev Preview
The devs at Digital Extremes offer a preview of some major changes coming in Warframe patch 10.0 including removed limitations on weapon equips, the UI, two new frames, and a new massive boss.
Nether Online SafeZone Objective Demo
Nether Online showcases a public event in which players defend the safezone from attacks by the mutant creatures.
Gloria Victis September Update Details
As you probably are aware the Gloria Victis team has been busy laying the framework of game mechanics in the past few months since the Pre-Alpha launch. This month we have had some time to put some flesh on these bones that gives a hint of things to come. The world is more interactive than ever, the player can interact with nature such as picking mushrooms and harvesting crops but in our most recent update players are now able to interact with doors, gates and levers, a prelude for mechanics from castle traps to majestic siege machines.
We have also opened up a little more of the town we are working on and as you can see from the battlement and town gate screenshots things are really shaping up to be something amazing!
Player customization has also received its first overhaul and new options will be available to players to customize ultimately working towards a character creation process that will be able to make every character’s appearance unique. We have improved on Camera mechanics to further represent a player’s ability to see and mob information is now only displayed at closer distances.
The most important news for this month is that our new website which will contain indepth information about combat, crafting, nations and lore is almost complete and will be launched in the very near future, for now here are some teaser screenshots of the website.















